HUGHES & KETTNER

Hughes & Kettner has long displayed an appreciation for classic tube-derived tones attained via alternative means. Several years ago, the company coupled tubes with solid-state and digital control methods and effects in its TubeMeister and GrandMeister series of über amps. With the Spirit 200 amps of a couple years back, however, H&K’s thinking had evolved toward an ongoing appreciation of tube tone generated by the Spirit Tone Generator. Developed by H&K’s chief developer Bernd Schneider, this solid-state technology is not modeling as we’ve come to know it — and, in fact, isn’t modeling at all — but a fully analog amplification system engineered to accurately mirror a tube’s response to the